Lincoln Stollard, who I met at the GAMA Trade Show a few years back, just told me that he’s completed work on a book called The Learning Project. In it, Lincoln interviews dozens of people in different fields to discover different ways in which people learn. It’s aimed at teenagers, to show them that there are all sorts of different ways to become educated about anything, but anyone curious about such things should enjoy it. Lincoln’s looking for a publisher for a dead-tree version of the book, but you can enjoy his work online right now for free.

Lincoln interviewed me as one of the three writers profiled in the book. He caught me on the tail end of an exhausting, fun-filled show (aren’t they all?), and I was probably a bit more scattered and candid than normal. If you’d like to know about me and how I got here, his interview of me is an excellent place to start.

My son Marty has the titular role in the KFAD production of The Emperor’s New Clothes. The play runs this Friday and Saturday at 7 PM and Sunday at 2 PM at the First Presbyterian Church in Beloit. If you live in the area, come on out and join us in watching Marty parade around stage in his long johns!

My wife Ann is a school social worker for the School District of Janesville, Wisconsin. Her main job is to serve as the homeless student liaison for the district. In this role, she’s spoken at conferences across the country, and just recently she’s been on local television twice.

Tonight, she also hauled herself out of her sickbed to appear on the Janesville Area Council PTA-Family Network show. This appeared on the Janesville public access cable channels (96 and 993) at 6:30 PM. Sadly, I can’t seem to find any archives for this show.

However, back on October 26, Ann appeared on Newsmakers, a production of WisconsinEye, our state’s version of CSPAN. If you scroll down to the second show on 10.26.09, you can watch or listen to the entire show, in which Ann discusses the increases in the homeless student population in Wisconsin, along with her counterparts from Milwaukee and Madison.

My son Marty has been pestering me to run a D&D campaign for him and his friends this fall. I’m going to try 4E, mostly so I can check out the new material in full. I have the basic books, of course. Can anyone recommend other must-have bits for the game? I’m heading to Gen Con this week, so I’m looking to pick them up there. Thanks!

Ann and I just got back from seeing Fountains of Wayne perform at Studio M, in the basement of 105.5 FM in Madison. I won the tickets in a random drawing on Monday and arranged for babysitting right away. We drove up to the station and got there on time and enjoyed a couple free beers courtesy of the Capital Brewery, which sponsors these events.

The band played a short set interspersed with interview questions, and they rocked. They even answered my smart-ass question about how much of an influence Michael Jackson had on them by confessing they sometimes used a riff from “Beat It” in their concerts. They went on to say though, that Jackson had undoubtedly had a huge influence on many muscians. Just not them.

It turns out that their bassist, Adam Schlesinger, wrote a bunch of the songs for “A Colbert Christmas.” This fact catapulted my respect for them even higher.

Afterward, we headed over to Westfield Comics and then to the Frugal Muse to gorge ourselves on comics and used books. From there, we ran to Sa-Bai Thong for a fantastic Thai dinner and then raced home to put the kids to bed. We had a wonderful time, and the whole day served as a perfect reminder of how great a city Madison is. I love living in Beloit, but one of the greatest things about it is how close it is to places like Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago too.

Yesterday’s Beloit Daily News had a short article about the Together We Read celebration at the Beloit Public Library on June 20. The photo that accompanies the article shows all five of my kids sitting in the front row of a story reading. From left to right, Pat’s the one in the green shirt (partially obscured by the reader), then Helen, Nick, Marty, and Ken. Ann brought them there, but I was still in the final throes of finishing Guild Wars: Fall of Ascalon at the time.

My son Marty is a member of a local acting troupe for kids: Kids Fun and Drama. Their latest musical, The Return of the Glass Slipper, opens tonight. It’s a funny update of the classic Cinderella story, and in it Marty plays King Rupert, the father of the prince. You can read more about it in the Beloit Daily News, which also has photos of the kids, including one of Marty on his throne.

The play opens tonight at the First Presbyterian Church (501 Prospect Avenue, Beloit, WI) at 7 PM. There’s also a performance tomorrow night at the same time, plus one on Sunday at 2 PM. If you’re in the area, be sure to come out to support the kids and join us for a night of fun.

(In other recent Forbeck-related news, Ann sat on a panel last night about Beloit’s gifted and talented school programs at our brand-new library, my mother spoke about tree-huggers at an Arbor Day celebration, and my father won his first election as judge, running unopposed.)

[WARNING: Local politics again, although maybe the last for a while.]

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As I mentioned earlier this week, Dave Arneson was terminally ill with cancer. He apparently had entered hospice, and his death had been falsely reported a few different times this week. Now, with confirmation from people I trust, we know that Dave died last night.

Dave was one of the two people credited with designing Dungeons & Dragons, the game that changed my life in many ways and gave millions of people countless hours of fun with their families and friends. The other, Gary Gygax, died just over a year ago.

Dave and Gary had a notorious falling out decades ago, which wound up with Dave suing to retain credit and obtain royalties on the game. While they managed to settle it out of court, they never, that I knew, repaired their friendship, which kept Dave out of mainstream gaming industry circles for years.

After Wizards of the Coast bought TSR, which published D&D, though, Dave made a well-heralded return to Gen Con. I had the honor of meeting Dave after that and the chance to express my gratitude to him. Best of all, I sat on a number of different panels with him in the following years, and he was always an absolute delight to spend any amount of time with.

One of the first things I did after Gary died was to write Dave a note too. Lots of times, we don’t express our appreciation of people until they’re gone, and I wanted to make sure Dave knew how I felt. A lot of other people did the same thing then and at Gen Con last year, which now turns out was Dave’s last.

One of my favorite memories of Dave was at the opening of one of the Gen Cons in Indianapolis. Standing next to a giant twenty-sided die—it had to be at least three feet across—Peter Adkison stood in front of throng of people massed outside the doors of the exhibit hall just before it opened for the first time that year. He then brought Dave and his granddaughter forward to make the opening die roll for the convention, the first time I ever remember anyone doing something like that. The grins on all three of their faces lit the gigantic hall, and the crowd let out a huge cheer when the giant die rolled.

I couldn’t think of a better way to start the show—or for me now to remember such a wonderful man.

[WARNING: Local Politics Ahead. Fortunately, the election is today, so after that we can return to our regularly scheduled blather.

By the way, if you're a local, do get out and vote. We're projected to have a low turnout this year, which makes every vote cast that much more precious.]

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